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Kurmi fire, March 2017 Kurmi

Out · last detection 16 Mar 2017, 12:40 UTC

The fire started on 3 March 2017 in Kurmi, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,845 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 69th largest in Taraba since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 71 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

Burnt area
2,845ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
3 Mar 2017 – 16 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
3 Mar
2017
Heat detections
110
in a single hotspot: 110 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Mar16 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

34568910111213141516

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

40°high
33km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.3 mm on 23 Mar.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Kurmi where it started
    2,863 ha reached on 25 Feb
    0.6 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
3 Mar 39.2 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Mar 39.4 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Mar 39.6 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Mar 38.1 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Mar 36.1 °C 36 % 32 km/h 1.0 mm High 26
8 Mar 37.8 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Mar 38.5 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Mar 36.8 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Mar 37.6 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Mar 38.1 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Mar 38.6 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Mar 36.7 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Mar 38.4 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Mar 38.3 °C 6 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Mar after 39.3 °C 5 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Mar after 39.8 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Mar after 38.3 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Mar after 36.9 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Mar after 40.1 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Mar after 37.4 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Mar after 37.9 °C 34 % 34 km/h 4.3 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 24 Feb 2017
After · 23 Mar 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 110Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Nigeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kurmi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 March 2017 and 16 March 2017: 14 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,845 hectares (28.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kurmi (2,863 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nigeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 112

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.